I have just experienced the life-changing magic of discarding two-thirds of my clothes, shoes, and accessories! One category down, a whole house to go. It’s so fun to get dressed now; all I have to do is reach in and anything I pull out “sparks joy” in my heart. After going up three sizes and then back down again within the last 2 years, you’d think I wouldn’t have anything left to discard, but that wasn’t true. So many items were hiding the good stuff, dragging me down with bad memories, worn out associations, and/or poor lines and fit.

After reading a few chapters, my husband has already begun with his own clothes, and miracle of miracles, he immediately bought some new work pants in his own style, of his own choosing, the kind that “spark joy” for him. And this man hates to shop.

So, life-changing? Yes! Does the book coincide with everything I’ve learned in the last 40 years of studying the energetic nature of human beings and all life as we know it? Yes! Do I love this book? Yes!

Am I the kind of person who, even though I recently undertook another de-cluttering project, still lived amid stashes of things that weighed me down with guilt and obligation and insecurity? Yes! My husband and I experienced some scary poverty years early in our lives together. It’s been difficult ever since to resist the urge to keep more than we need. As the youngest in our respective families, we also shared the habit of accepting whatever was given to us, hand-me-downs that might or might not have suited us. The concept of wearing, using, or keeping only items that “spark joy” makes brilliant sense to me now, and feels like wonderful liberation.

I am very excited and inspired by Marie Kondo’s work, and I’m equally enthusiastic about continuing throughout the house until we are living a much smaller, less encumbered, joyously infused material existence here in our happy home. I love the way she characterizes the impact of our thoughts on our things, and vice versa. I just love her entire outlook.

Oh yes, one more life-changing aspect (already): I hated to fold things. Just like she says, after following her instructions (and watching her demonstrate on YouTube) it’s become a fun game for me. Weird, but true. You have to experience this to believe it. I recommend reading the entire book before you begin any “tidying-up,” though, so you get the full effect of Marie Kondo’s charismatic, inspirational advice.

The holidays are upon us and it’s time for my favorite story: The Blue Wand-Bearers. I first read about this higher-frequency, energetic, universal, spiritual event when I was in my early twenties. Bringing it back to mind has become an important part of my annual winter contemplation ever since.

This completely non-denominational event is not an earth-based celebration, but it profoundly effects all living things on Earth. Those who benefit most, however, are those who open their hearts and minds at this time of year with a gracious thought toward the well-being of others, or a moment of awe, or a gasp of insight, or a sudden upwelling of L-O-V-E for all things great and small.

Gathered in ceremony in the higher planes where Light rules, countless Beings await Earth’s season of receptivity. To understand what they’re about, you must first contemplate who they are, and what their life’s purpose is.

Unlike us, they no longer live in physical bodies. For many, their transition to life in higher-frequency worlds came long ago, although some among this particular gathering are relatively “recent” arrivals. You would recognize their names, perhaps, because they, like you, previously lived and evolved on planet Earth (and elsewhere). They may have graduated completely from the need for physical incarnations, or they might simply be enjoying a lengthy hiatus in these beautiful, crystalline-appearing worlds of pure energy before they reincarnate again on a physical planet, undoubtedly to carry out some personal, spiritual purpose. Because if they are participating in this ceremony, they are not young souls. These are the Beings who provide the energy-fuel for our world and others like it by translating the Universal Source energy through their Mind-selves, stepping down the high, high frequencies of Infinite Intelligence (God energy) into forms that we on Earth find useful and life-giving.

This by the way is our own spiritual potential, a higher grade of humanity that we are perfectly designed to attain if we so choose and apply ourselves to that objective.

Over my years of enjoying this story, I finally realized that even one such as I, lower on the scale of evolution, can play a role in this annual ceremony of Light.

First, and most importantly, by my awareness and receptivity, which doesn’t require any knowledge at all of the details of the event. We will receive from the higher dimensions, if we reach a peak moment of mental energy.

But secondly, if we consciously recall what’s taking place in the invisible or “subtle” energy fields of Earth and the humans who inhabit it during this lengthy winter solstice transition, we might become participants in this annual ceremony.

Tempers flared, decibels rose. “You agreed to pay 25% when you moved in!” I insisted. “But you use more electricity during the day than I do!” my roommate shouted back, this sweet-looking, perfectly-put-together woman who never showed this side of herself in public.

We’d been at this angry impasse for days. Finally, a thought came to me and I spat: “You know, if we don’t work this out now, we’ll have to come back as a man and woman, get married, and share a checkbook!”

At that point, the thought of marrying the other person was so abhorrent to us both that it worked like a splash of cold water. It didn’t hurt that we’d met in a past-life therapy class: we knew it could be true! After a stunned moment, we both broke out laughing.

What didn’t occur to me until long after she moved out and I went off to marry a really nice guy was that we’d probably already done the marriage routine, and left an imbalance we had to work out in our present lifetime, fighting over that stupid electric bill. Thankfully, we accomplished it, with laughter to shift the energy of the past and knowledge to pave the way.

If you’ve already read my article on Zazen Life: The Psychic Anatomy Concept of Life, then you know that nothing is lost in your personal universe. Everything you’ve done, said, thought, or felt remains with you, from life to life, as you experience your sequential incarnations. It’s not all active at the same time, however. Often things come around and go around and come back again according to circumstantial triggers in your life, and a few other cyclic, cosmic factors you’re not privy to. But one thing you can count on:

The important people in your life are very likely to have been people you’ve met before.

How can you tell?

First, you have to stop and consider it. That’s probably the hardest step. Once you realize this truth about your interactions with others, you’ll see it everywhere: former lovers, friends, enemies, family members. For a time, you might overdo it, imagining past-life connections that didn’t really happen. But some connections—the valid ones—ultimately prove themselves over and over again, if you pay attention.

Here are 12 ways to identify the hints of history that have drawn you back into each other’s orbits, for better or for worse. But always, with the opportunity to improve your relationship so that the next time you meet, things will be even better (especially in the case of former enemies)! And it’s likely you will meet again if you’ve got work left to do together. The principles of interdimensional science and your own personal design may mandate it. So it’s wise to do your best with each other now.

We’ll start with the easiest ways to recognize an old compatriot, your past life friends, lovers, and enemies:

Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has expanded the morphic field with his newest film, Interstellar. Joseph and I snuck off to see it last Sunday and were happily impressed to discover his use of interdimensional concepts we’ve been studying for decades. In fact, I suspect he wanted to call it Interdimensional but producers and distributors said, “Who would ever go to see a film with that name?”

I’m not about to give away anything, but just in case, bookmark this post and come back to it later if you haven’t seen this exciting film everyone’s talking about.

I want to elaborate on a concept (one of many) touched on so briefly in the midst of the most dramatic unfoldings, the notion of five-dimensional Beings actually being Us, evolved beyond our current status.

I saved this post for after Halloween so as not to freak you out too much. But you might have relived one of your deaths last week. (Yes, I’m discussing a serious side-effect of reincarnation.)

What was your costume? Did it have blood? Any implements of death or torture sticking out of you? Or were you a Naughty Nurse? An Aging Crone? A Starfleet Officer? A Priest?

You see, death has come in many ways, and not all of them as gruesome as you might think. Given how many times we’ve passed through it, the simplest of farmer’s coveralls might be the ones you were wearing the day the bull got the best of you. You’ve undoubtedly “relived a death,” or re-attuned to lives in which you died, hundreds of times already.

So why are we even discussing it? Because some deaths caused more trauma than others, and those might be the ones you’ve decided to arrange a healing around. If you reach a point in your life where your Plan is to address lingering fears and physical weaknesses—the psychic scars of this traumatic “death” experience in your eternal life—then you will probably relive that death with more drama. You might actually think and fear that you are going to die—again.